How to improve soil drainage

Afternoon to you all.
I am just getting into gardening having moved house. I know very little about gardening to be honest, although it is quite clear that our soil has very poor drainage. The ground is always quite boggy and I leave the garden with half the soil still stuck to my wellies!
What is the best way to improve the drainage in my garden, but particularly in my flower beds?

 

Hi Greg , one of GC members , PeterS made a very good post on drainage ,link below . Now this was a major undertaking , but possibly you can pick up a few points from it.
Improving clay

 

Thanks HarryS, there is some good advice. Wow! A lot of work

 

If I walk on my garden at this time of the year i tend to walk away with about 3ins of mud on my boots.
It's down to the type of soil, mine is clay, but in summer it can be pretty dry even where I have improved it with compost etc.
So I would say, that unless you have standing water at this time of the year you may not actually have a drainage problem.

 

Thanks pete, good point. I suppose only time will tell as I haven't been through a summer in this house. The grass (well, what's left of it) feels quite marshy and sticky underfoot. I want to start preparing some of the beds for plants so may try improve drainage just in the beds to start with and see if that helps.